Marc Andreessen, co-founder of one in all Silicon Valley’s most distinguished enterprise capital corporations, says he has been a Democrat for many of his life. He says he supported and voted for Invoice Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Nevertheless, he says he’s now not loyal to the Democratic Celebration. Within the 2024 presidential race, he helps and votes for former President Donald Trump. The rationale he’s selecting Trump over President Joe Biden primarily comes down to 1 main situation: he believes Trump’s insurance policies are way more favorable to tech, particularly the startup ecosystem.
Andreessen defined his arguments and the way the 2 presidential candidates’ platforms examine to one another within the newest Episode of “The Ben and Mark Present”podcast he co-hosts with a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz.
“I want we did not have to decide on sides,” mentioned Horowitz, who additionally acknowledged that his political selection would upset lots of his pals and even his mom. “We actually [believe] The way forward for our enterprise, the way forward for know-how and the way forward for America are at stake.”
Andreessen and Horowitz defined that technological prowess is one in all three pillars — together with economics and navy may — which have enabled the U.S. to develop into essentially the most profitable nation on the planet over the previous century. American dominance in these three areas helped the U.S. peacefully defeat one of many twentieth century’s best threats: the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union ended the Chilly Warfare as a result of it couldn’t compete with the U.S. technologically, the a16z co-founders mentioned.
“Why is know-how necessary? As a result of if you do not have the know-how a part of this triangle, you will not have the financial half, you will not have the navy half,” Andreesen mentioned.
They listed a number of the reason why they imagine the Biden administration is stifling startups by over-regulation and doubtlessly pointless taxation, whereas Trump wish to encourage innovation to flourish.
Amongst different issues, the co-founders defined that they disagree with the White Home’s present plan to “over-regulate” synthetic intelligence.
“Any restrictions we impose, [on] “We ourselves will put the US at an obstacle in comparison with the remainder of the world,” Andreesen mentioned.
Additionally they mentioned Trump’s views on AI at a latest dinner with the previous president. “He advised us the next:[AI] “It’s totally scary, however we’ve got to win as a result of if we do not win, China will win,” Horowitz mentioned.
Moreover, Andreesen mentioned that, not like the Biden administration, Trump’s plan to manage cryptocurrencies represents “full help for all the area.”
However Biden’s proposal to tax unrealized capital features is what Andreesen referred to as “the ultimate straw” that pushed him from supporting the incumbent to voting for Trump. If the unrealized capital features tax goes into impact, startups might must pay taxes on their appreciation. (The appreciation of personal firms is illiquid. However the U.S. authorities collects the tax in {dollars}.)
“In the event you’re a enterprise agency, you are having chunks of your portfolio taken away yearly. You are going out of enterprise,” Andreesen mentioned. “That makes startups utterly not possible.”
Andreessen has spoken concerning the significance of know-how to society prior to now. In October final yr, he revealed “Manifesto of a Techno-Optimist“, which referred to as on technologists to disregard the critics and pessimists and embrace know-how as “the one sustainable supply of progress.” The corporate is likely one of the largest enterprise capitalists in Silicon Valley, with greater than $42 billion in belongings underneath administration, in line with PitchBook.